FORT WORTH, Texas – Texas Southern's basketball season came to an end as a big first half propelled top-seeded Kansas to an 83-56 win Thursday night at Dickies Arena.
The Tigers scored the opening bucket to open the game and remained within four through the first six minutes. The Jayhawks responded with an 8-2 run over the next two minutes as TSU committed two turnovers. TSU would finally return to the board after a two-minute drought as John Walker III nailed a trey to cut the deficit to 17-10 at the 11:50 mark. However, the tide of the contest would turn over the final 10:11 as they went 2-of-14 from the field while KU shot 12-of-20 from the field including a trio three-pointers and one at the buzzer off an offensive rebound en route to a 47-19 halftime lead.
The Tigers would begin to settle down in the second half as they had more field goals (5) within the first eight minutes of the second half than they did the entire first half (7). The Tigers began to find their offensive rhythm with an 8-2 run which forced Kansas to call a timeout and insert its starters with 7:34 left as they trailed 66-43.
Kansas would use the three-ball to pull away further over the next few minutes as they nailed three consecutive three-pointers down the stretch.
Walker III scored 13 points and blocked four shots while Brison Gresham scored nine. Karl Nicholas scored seven with nine rebounds.
TSU closes out the season with a 19-13 record which marked its most wins since head coach Johnny Jones' first season at TSU.
